Occurrence of thermophilic Campylobacter spp. in porcine liver in Northern Ireland

Pork livers (400) from bacon pigs (37 herds) obtained at six pork-processing plants in Northern Ireland were studied to assess the rate of contamination with Campylobacter spp. These animals average 95 to 100 kg live weight. Deep tissue areas were sampled immediately postevisceration and revealed that ca. 6% of Livers were infected with Campylobacter spp., consisting of C. coli (67%), C, jejuni (30%) and C. lari (3%). Mean log(10) CFU g(-1) for aerobic plate count and coliforms were 3.60 and 2.94 respectively, indicating reasonable maintenance of slaughter-house hygiene procedures. A combination of direct swabbing of liver coupled with plating on both Skirrow and Blaser-Wang selective media was the most efficient combination of selective media employed. These data confirm the presence of Campylobacter spp. in porcine liver, thereby emphasizing the need to define safe processing parameters in the manufacture of liver-based products that are subjected to mild thermal processes, in order to eliminate the risk of disease to man.